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DYNAMIC 



DEMOCRACY 



BY 



DR. GLAYBOURN GOOCH 




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THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE 

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Copyright. 1918 • 

By DR. CLAYBOURN GOOCH 



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Address Before 

The National Executive Committee of 

THE American Constitutional Alliance 

New York City 

April, 1918 



INTRODUCTION BY LOUIS RUBIN 

First Secretary of the National Executive Committee .j^w. 

of the U^ 

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE^ 

In the shadows of progress the world is engaged in a cruel and san- 
guinary war. A universal, reckless sweep of unreason, inspired by German 
autocracy, is breaking down all the living forces of the soul, leaving it 
inert, trembling and terrified. The human mind stands bewildered in the 
presence of its formidable creations, as this ineffable conflict is relent- 
lessly plucking from the garden of life the flowers of youth and virginity. 
Titanic in her destructive power, haughty in her dealings, wondrous in 
her accomplishments of devastation, she would leave the world, which 
bore the torturous windings of this conquest with the most unpretending 
valor, a helpless, degenerating ruin. Atrociously criminal, she alone stands 
upon the pinnacle of depravity. She only in the supremacy of crime hath 
told us that she has forgotten the obligation to be virtuous ; and when 
we gaze upon brave little Belgium, and war-stricken Europe in general 
and behold her smitten fields, her ruined cities and desolate homes, we 
are instantly confronted by these dreadful truths. 

But, ascending from this yawning hollow, shining -above the horizon of 
this universal pestilence, there looms up the energetic, inextinguishable 
light of Democracy that radiates the path of moral rectitude, informing 
us that we can firmly and confidently proclaim that the breath of that 
divinely planted aspiration — the passion for freedom — will prove to be 
mightier than all the brutally, materialistic strength, and all the prodigious 
armaments which seem to have laid the world low. With the dawning 
of Democracy, great, stirring human emotions will vitalize every fibre of 
her glittering fabric, as the souls of men, women, and children are liber- 
ated from the dungeons of warfare's greed in which they have been 
heartlessly incarcerated by despicable autocracy, shocking their sensibili- 
ties and marbleizing their spiritual faculties. 

Then shall the human heart, pregnant with a desire for righteousness, 
and under a solemn consciousness of the sanctity of the flame of life, 
cry out in protest against a repetition of this most lamentable holacaust, 
and, by adopting pure and courageous democratic government, make an 
end of war forever. 

On the 19th of April, 1918, Dr. Claybourn Gooch delivered this mas- 
terly address on "DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY" before the Executive Body 
of the American Constitutional Alliance. 

The vigor of his thought ; the force of his expression ; his cold, calm, 
collected manner; his unimpassioned voice, combined with his matchless 
presentation of weighty facts, make him a very Interesting character in- 
deed. His lecture was equally interesting, and until the world shall have 
overthrown the treacherous bond of war-lords, who derive power, not 
from the consent of the governed, but by brutal force, will productions of 
this nature cease to be valuable as an aid to the world move for 
Democracy. 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

By 

DR. CLAYBOURN GOOCH 



The world has come to the parting of the ways and must 
decide upon its future course of government. 

President Lincoln said of our own country, that it could 
not exist "half slave and half free," and the time has come 
when the world has grown too small for the continuance 
of two such diametrically opposed ideas of government as 
that represented by the allied Democracies and that repre- 
sented by the Autocracies of the Central Powers. 

In a book of Mr. H. G. Wells', published after the first 
year of the war, in which he gives an account of his visit 
to the several fronts in Italy and France, he says, '*My 
memory of this tour I have just made is full of puzzled- 
looking men," and he recounts that he saw thousands of 
men, soldiers from many lands, in the streets, the cafes, the 
trains, the trenches, ''their very outline a note of interro- 
gation" ; and what was true of the soldiers at the front is 
true of the majority of our people at home. 

The thing which has come upon the world has been so 
surprising, so unbelievable, a thing so inconceivable of 
civilized nations that even now, after more than a year of 
participation in the war, there are many persons who ap- 
parently do not appreciate its profound significance. 

To this lack of understanding is largely due the apathy 
of many regarding the Liberty Loans, the Red Cross, the 
Y. M. C. A., and other important war causes. Strange 
things have been happening. Things have happened we 
had never believed possible in our peaceful, busy country. 
Men have been drafted wholesale into our army. In a land 
where the military was scarce in evidence except on special 
and gala occasions, soldiers have become everywhere com- 
mon. Controls of food and fuel and transportation have 
suddenly appeared and extra holidays enforced ; restrictions 
upon our comforts and our appetites have been fixed, vet 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



nevertheless, while we know in a general way that the new 
order is due to the war, deep down in the consciousness of 
a large percentage of the people there is a suspicion that, 
after all, many of these innovations are not really neces- 
sary, and as a friend of mine said to me shortly after the 
war began, they wonder '''What's all the fuss about, any- 
way?" "AVhat is the thing?" 

We have sent an army overseas, we have shed our blood 
on the battlefields of a foreign country, we have spent and 
will spend more of our millions of treasure, and for what? 

There has been a vast deal written and spoken about 
Democracy as related to this war. President Wilson de- 
clared in his message to Congress that, "the world must 
be made safe for Democracy," and therefore the United 
States should go into the war, but with all the gravity such 
a step held for the nation, the term Democracy had little 
significance for most of us. We did not know just why 
the world was not already safe for Democracy, for the 
very simple reason that we did not comprehend what De- 
mocracy was. There are some even now who can not see 
that Democracy is in danger, or perhaps won't see is nearer 
the' truth. To very many the term has had little more 
meaning than a government by the Democrats, and its co- 
relative term Republic, but signified a change to a govern- 
ment by the Republicans. 

OUTLINE OF DISCUSSION— DEMAND 
FOR THINKERS 

It is my purpose at this time to discuss what Democracy 
is, its relation to this world Avar, and the effect of the w^ar 
upon Democracy; and in examining the subject of democ- 
racy in this manner, I hope we shall find the answer to at 
least some of the most important questions regarding the 
v/ar. 

But I must first ask your indulgence for a little, that I 
may set before you a few unfamiliar facts regarding gov- 
ernment. These facts may appear a trifle prosaic, but 
they are very essential to a correct understanding of the 

MAV 24 1918 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



subject in hand, and I trust that you will find them not alto- 
gether uninteresting. 

This calamity that has befallen mankind is the result of 
an affection of by no means superficial character. It is the 
result of a true malady, long standing and deep seated. 
Its roots extend a long way back into the very infancy 
of the race and the predisposing factors include heredity of 
a truly ancient origin. The virus of the disease has so 
permeated a part of humankind that it has become in- 
grained and they no longer appear normally human. v Ap- 
parently, the normal human instincts and moral senses of 
these people have been destroyed and they have developed 
a phobia for their kind. If we are to escape mistaking 
temporary improvement for a cure, we must go to the very 
root of the matter and not allow ourselves to be deceived 
regarding how thorough and extensive the cure must be. 

When I submitted the draft of this address to a friend 
for a first reading, he said, "Why — er — yes — it's — alright — 
interesting — and all that — but don't you think you are a 
little too long in reaching the place where you give the 
Kaiser hell ^^ 

Now that is just the very thing I fear too many of us 
have been doing ever since the war began. We have been 
damning men and nations and have not been doing much 
thinking. I should say there has not been half enough real 
thinking done. We have overlooked the fundamentals and 
lost sight of the very things we needed most to know, the 
things that would have been of the greatest comfort when 
the days were the darkest, the things that would have been 
the greatest stimulus to our courage and that would have 
lead to intelligent action. Carlyle said, **A thinking man 
is the worst enemy the prince of darkness can have," and 
just now we need thinking men, if ever. 

HATE IS NOT OUR MOTIVE 

I know there are some who hold that we cannot fight if 
we do not hate, and you will see signs posted to the effect 
that w^e must get ''our blood boiling" to "scrap right." But 
this is something different from any experience the world 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



has ever had before, and we should think of it from an 
entirely different angle. Hate is not the motive we need 
to inspire us. Hate, I trust, has not brought us here to- 
night. In the language of Brutus, 

"The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse — 
If these be motives w^eak, break off betimes — 
And every man hence to his idle bed." 

All we need to know are the facts, and, further in the Jan- 
guage of the great democratic character of Shakespeare, 

"If these, as I am sure they do, bear fire enough 
To kindle cowards and steel with valour. 
The melting spirits of women, then my countrymen 
What need we any spur but our own cause." 

You may ask, if hate is not the emotion the soldier must 
feel to enable him to fight his best, what then is the emo- 
tion or motive that inspires him? 

Webster's dictionary gives as the synonyms of hate the 
words detest, abhor, abominate, loathe. Hate, the general 
term, implies extreme aversion, especially with enmity or 
malice. Crabb's English Synonyms says ^'hatred, enmity, 
ill-will, rancour — these terms agree in this particular, that 
those who are under the influence of such feelings derive 
pleasure from the misfortunes of others ; but hatred ex- 
presses more than enmity, and this more than ill-will, which 
signifies either an evil will or a willing of evil. Hatred 
is not contented with merely wishing ill to others, but de- 
rives its whole happiness from their misery or destruction ; 
hatred is frequently confined to the feeling of the indi- 
vidual, and he who is possessed with hatred is happy when 
the object of his passion is miserable and is miserable 
when he is happy." We cannot in this sense truly be said 
to hate the mad dog, the rattlesnake or the tarrantula. We 
recognize them as a menace and so destroy them, not in 
malice toward them, but in love for our fellow men, for 
the sake of safety. And so it is with our attitude toward 
Germany. If we could come by the spirit of Autocracy, 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



that is moving Germany in this awful war, and not "dis- 
member" Germany, I am sure that we should all be glad 
to do so, but, "alas, she must bleed for it." 

We have reached a stage of development where we can 
perform an unpleasant duty as thoroughly, without appeal- 
ing to the baser passions as under their excitement — and 
better. Clear thinking and not blind hating is the thing 
we need now, but, lest someone think that this is to be a 
spineless apology of pacifism, let me tell you, this war had 
to be, and all the pacifists in the world could not stop it. 

And, another thing, we had to get into it. We will get 
into it deeper still. We will get into it "with both feet," 
and, thank God, there can be but one end. We shall win! 

Never in the whole history of the world has a war been 
so universally vmpopular as this war. House-cleaning has 
never been a particularly pleasing thought to any of us, but 
we do it just the same. Well, the old world has begun 
house-cleaning, and, although we may have to sleep cold, 
live out of tin cans and cracker boxes, take our meals 
standing and drink our coffee without sugar for a while, 
it's got to be done and we will do it. 

This has got to be a finish-fight and we would not have 
it otherwise. There must not be, what Darwin P. Kings- 
ley, President of the New York Life Insurance Company, 
calls ""a cowardly compromise with criminals." This thing 
must never happen again. 

DEFINITIONS— HOW GOVERNMENT 
ORIGINATED 

Now for those facts about government. 

The dictionaries tell us that Democracy signifies a gov- 
ernment. One in which the sovereign power resides in a 
certain body of the people and is exercised by representa- 
tives, elected by, and responsible to the people. That the 
word is derived from two Greek words, one meaning people, 
and the other to be strong. 

It is then a peculiar form of government, and, it is well 
to note in passing, that the chief characteristics being the 
elective and representative features, it is not, therefore. 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



necessarily confined to a Republic, but may exist as a 
Monarchy or Oligarchy, in fact, anywhere that the govern- 
ment is based on those principles. 

If, then. Democracy is a form of government vested in 
either an individual or a- body, and, since all governments 
are not Democratic, it becomes necessary for us to inquire 
into the development of government in general, in order 
to know what other forms of government there are and 
how they are related to Democracy. Later we shall see 
how very important this is. 

' We naturally turn to the historian and the ethnologist 
for this information, but, since history cannot precede a 
written language, the earliest developments of government 
from that point of view are necessarily somewhat specu- 
lative. Ethnology, however, shows us that it is not essen- 
tial to have a written record of the lives of people living 
thousands of years ago, in order to learn about the lives 
of primitive peoples. It demonstrates to us that people 
living in comparatively recent times have lived in prac- 
tically the same way and under almost identically the same 
conditions as the primitive peoples of the most remote ages, 
and that conditions, not calendars, measure the primitive. 
We can then explore the primitive, and in tracing the origin 
of government, arrive at the source of Democracy and fol- 
low its evolution. 

Government, however primitive, presupposes some sort 
of social order and social organization, and the first efforts 
in its direction furnish the earliest emergence from sav- 
agery. These first communal efforts undoubtedly had their 
foundation in war, and the necessity of combining for 
defense, creating a social order. 

Owing to the low state of mental development, leader- 
ship and consequent government was placed in the indi- 
vidual of greatest physical prowess, and dominion was thus 
coupled with might. In this connection it may not be 
uninteresting to recall that Saul, the first king to be chosen 
in Israel, was, as the biblical account records it, "from his 
shoulders and upward, higher than any of the people." 

Quite naturally these ideas of organization and rule by 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



force were extended to times of peace. In the chaotic 
condition of such a society, organization and direction was 
apparently impossible by any method other than the exer- 
cise of physical dominion. Thus the man of might obtained 
rule, and, but for the law of pre-natal culture, operating 
through the medium of hero-worship, which tricked the 
occasional individual of unusual physique, he himself, un- 
consciously, furnishing the pattern after which other giants 
v/ere fashioned, physical prowess might have continued the 
dominating force indefinitely. When there became too 
many of the mighty men for any one to enforce his will 
by means of the physical strength he enjoyed, government 
by mind first stirred in human consciousness, and, although 
it doubtless found expression in the lowest cunning, it was, 
nevertheless a mental act, and that day saw the beginning 
of the end of government by might. 

With the introduction of the mental as a factor in gov- 
ernment, there was introduced another, if possible, even 
more powerful influence, and one that should endure as 
long as government endures. I refer to the influence of 
religion. Let me say here that, despite the awful depths 
to which it has been prostituted in the past, religion must 
forever bear a conspicuous part in the government of men, 
and, like everything else, it too is undergoing a change, 
and is due a renaissance out of the effects the war is working 
upon us. 

RELIGION EARLY BECAME A 

POWERFUL FACTOR IN 

GOVERNMENT 

But let us go back again to the time these influences first 
came upon the scene of government. 

Simultaneously with the awakening of the mind, there 
occurred the conception of a divinity or supernatural per- 
sonified force that was to be feared and placated. When- 
ever and wherever men begin to think — they think of God. 
Mind meant imagination, and the phenomena of nature was 
full of suggestions. The sun, the moon, lightning and 
thunder, each supplied its wonder and its mystery, and 



10 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

was, in consequence, deified. It was an easy step, one 
might say a natural step, for an advanced mind to connect 
these ideas and fears of the supreme, with the thought of 
power, and, by taking advantage of them, establish himself 
as ruler with divine rights and prerogatives. 

To maintain supremacy and establish unquestioning 
obedience and recognition of this divine connection and its 
hereditary character in a world of unfolding mentality, it 
became necessary that those minds be directed and con- 
trolled, if not 'positively hindered in their unfoldment. 
History records how effectual were the methods used in 
establishing this control and reveals the crafty employ- 
ment of religion in attaining this end. That religious 
teachings were as effectual in the early days of government 
as in more recent times is obvious. 

However primitive the religion, it, nevertheless, had its 
officiating functionaries or priestly class, and there seems 
to have been a close agreement between these and the 
ruling class, giving mutual support to each other's author- 
ity. In some instances the two offices were combined and 
the priestly was the ruling class. Since the priesthood 
monopolized nearly all the learning, it was not a difficult 
matter for them to instill into the minds of the ignorant 
multitude the doctrine of the right divine of kings to rule, 
and the religious duty of the people to submit and obey. 
In return for this service especial privileges were granted 
them, varying in kind and magnitude, in some cases taking 
the form of grants of land and permission to collect 
revenues. 

A striking example of the abuse of religion and its em- 
ployment by men to secure the gratification of their selfish 
desires, even in this day, is found in Turkey, where the 
women of the harem are taught that their condition is 
ordained of God. What divine decrees may have been 
promulgated among these unfortunates since the unholy 
alliance of their government with Germany, we know not, 
but it is interesting to note that the captured Turkish 
soldiers claim that their allies have taught them methods of 
torture of which the Turk had never dreamed. 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY ii 

I recently heard a returned missionary from Armenia say 
that when it was proposed by the Central Powers that Tur- 
key declare the Jehad, or Holy War, and thus turn loose 
upon the Christian world (outside of the Central Powers, 
to be sure) the millions and millions of Moslem fanatics, 
the one man whose word would have made it legal and, 
therefore, possible, recoiled from a deed so hellish, and, 
bigot though he was, with no love for the Christian to stay 
his hand, refused to become a party to such an awful 
crime, resigning his political office in the Turkish govern- 
ment rather than do its bidding at the dictation of Berlin. 

From these facts we have found the important part the 
influence of religion has played in the establishing of gov- 
ernment. It has been second only to the military power 
in establishing and perpetuating nearly all the great gov- 
ernments of earth since government was first conceived, 
and now the time has come, when, in the advancing day of 
thought and the high-noon vision of reason, religion is to 
be divorced from the debasing connection it has maintained 
through the ages, and the old combination under which 
men have groaned so long will be dissolved on the battle- 
fields of Europe. Mankind's emancipation is coming. 

DEMOCRACY A NATURAL FORCE 

Change is the order of the universe, the law of being. 
In the material world nothing endures. "The most inde- 
structible rock will in time disintegrate ; the mountain 
peaks will crumble away and the rough places be made 
smooth." Frost and wind and root and tendril, heat and 
cold, will do their work ; in other words, natural forces 
cannot be successfully and perpetually resisted. 

In this war we are witnessing a great natural force in 
action. 

There has been, throughout all time, a well-defined law, 
governing the mental and spiritual development of men. 
just the same as that which has operated in the material 
realm governing the development of the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms. Under this law an equally well defined 
force has been in action, and, expressed in government, we 



12 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



term that force Democracy. In it we find the source of all 
the social, political, and, without greatly deviating from the 
facts, all of the spiritual, changes about us. The movement 
of this force is just as certain in the effects which it pro- 
duces as the force of gravitation is certain in the effects 
which it produces. 

Walt Whitman recognized it and so have all the great 
thinkers of modern times. Whitman expressed it in one of 
his inimitable songs, which I quote : 

"To thee, old cause ! 
Thou peerless, passionate, good cause! 
Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea ! 
Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands ! 
After a strange sad war — great war for thee, 
(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever 

will be really fought for thee) 
These chants for thee — the eternal m.arch of thee. 
Thou orb of many orbs ! 

Thou seething principle ! Thou well-kept latent germ ! 
Thou centre." 

Ah, how well he sensed it, and how perfectly he described 
the qualities this force possesses. Old, peerless, passionate, 
good, stern, remorseless, deathless, sweet idea. An orb of 
many orbs, a seething principle, a well-kept latent germ. 
It is all there. Working slowly, perhaps, but always in 
action. Evolution has ever been a slow method, but it 
has proven a sure one. 

While the historian and ethnologist have furnished us 
'with ample evidence of this evolutionary process, to fully 
describe the infinite variety of influences which have op- 
erated in shaping and modifying these developments is 
manifestly impossible here. It is sufficient for us to ob- 
serve that the tendency has been definite and that the 
progressiveness of that tendency has been unquestionably 
established. 

History from the beginning of governments to the begin- 
ning of the Republic is a seamy record of the tyrannies of 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 13 

the strong, the rich and the powerfuL Arthur Gleason 
says, "The democratic movement began consciously with 
the purp(\se of freeing the human race from poverty," but 
the earliest revolt against despotism, which is truly the 
first evidence of the presence of the democratic force, was 
doubtless due to the tyrannical exercise of power, and the 
day that indomitable spirit of liberty, inherent in all men, 
rebelled against tyranny, perhaps more truly marks the 
beginning of Democracy. It was actually born when the 
great natural force, the desire for freedom, asserted itself. 
When this "deathless, sweet idea" became as deeply im- 
planted in the minds of men as it had always naturally been 
lodged in their hearts. When this "well-kept latent germ" 
burst its shell and struggled up through the debris of 
oppression to flower in the sunlight of freedom. When 
this "seething principle" of justice burst the bonds of super- 
stition and tradition, and men learned that life and liberty 
should be synonymous terms. 

MILESTONES IN THE EVOLUTION OF 
DEMOCRACY 

The history of the development of the democratic idea is 
a record of slow and painf d evolvement. Like the brook 
winding its tortuous way through the rocks and over pre- 
cipitous falls, and traveling far before it has gained suf- 
ficient volume to be dignified as a river, so has the current 
of this idea struggled through the ages. 

Poltical freedom, although the inherent right of all man- 
kind (and womankind, if 3'ou please) has been won only 
amidst the severest struggles of a people to obtain their 
rights. Voluntary surrender of those rights by the privi- 
leged class has been a thing unknown, and certainly not 
without the exercise of some direct or indirect pressure 
have the people's rights ever been granted. 

John of England signed the IMagna Carta, only Avhen 
compelled by the Barons to do so. Such presumptuous 
interference with divine authority by subjects could not 
be tolerated, and the Pope, to whom he appealed for abso- 
lution from his act, promptly declared the charter null and 



14 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

void. The old combination of church and state was pow- 
erful in those days, and the decree of the Church, as the 
Church, regardless of its merit, was to be respected. But 
the leaven was working, the first step toward liberty had 
been taken and there was no turning back. War again 
broke out and the curtailment of the monarch's power was 
made permanent. 

It is an interesting, but too-long story to tell here — the 
onward march of this "old cause," its victories and its tem- 
porary defeats. The ten years' war of the Great Rebellion, 
1642, with the austere Cromwell as its central figure, the 
Revolution of 1688, establishing parliamentary rule, and 
the final passing of the Reform bill in 1867, by which Eng- 
land became a democracy. The American Revolution, the 
adoption of the Constitution in 1787-1791, the War of the 
Rebellion, 1861-1865, the French Revolution, 1789, the 
establishment of the French Republic in 1871, and the 
throwing off of the papal yoke by Italy, in the same year, 
all forward movements, all progressively assisting in the 
evolutionary process, all widening and deepening the 
channel for the gathering of the waters of freedom, that 
were to finally engulf the despot and all his works. 

The mask of hypocrisy, by which Autocracy had shielded 
its true purpose, the subterfuge of its secret diplomacy, was 
torn aside on that August morning in 1914, when not a war 
to punish a little European state, but the world war was 
announced. That day was a long way from the day the 
first thinking tribesman conceived the trick by which he 
undid his rival, but it was the logical consequence. Mind 
and might stand face to face, — right and might have meas- 
ured lances, and can we doubt the issue? 

Whatever may have been the immediate cause of this 
war, the potential cause was the old conflict between 
Democracy and Autocracy. Throughout the ages, Autoc- 
racy's mightiest foe has ever been the democratic idea, and 
we have come now to another epoch in the evolution of 
Democracy, when it confronts this ancient enemy under 
circumstances and conditions, which promise a final deci- 
sion in the long and bitter struggle for supremacy. Sen- 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 15 

ator Borah, in a recent speech before the Senate, quoting 
from the German historian, Professor Meyer, who, in a 
book written since the beginning of the war, sums up the 
issues involved and makes the following important resume 
of the situation, "The truth of the whole matter undoubt- 
edly is that the time has arrived when two distinct forms 
of state organization must face each other in a life-and- 
death struggle," and the Senator reminds us that this is 
not a war, "involving merely the interests of all the citizens 
of the great nations participating, but that it is distinctly 
a war between systems of government," and should be so 
recognized. 

IMPERIALISM AND MILITARY RECORD 
OF AUTOCRACY 

In order that we may gain a better perspective of the 
situation at the time this conflict was precipitated and 
understand something of the character of our chief op- 
ponents in the struggle, a glance at their history for the 
last century will be helpful. 

Over one hundred years ago, in fact, the great monarchs 
of Europe formed a combination which had for its aim " 
the suppression of the slightest expression of the demo- 
cratic idea. They recognized then that the democratic doc- 
trine furnished the most powerful menace to their Auto- 
cratic privileges, and, if it were permitted to survive and 
flourish, the days of their power were numbered. To stifle 
the free spirit of the new-born revolutionary era, expressed 
by popular movements in Spain, Portugal, the German and 
Italian states, military force was employed in the most 
ruthless and even barbarous manner. Particularly was this 
true in Italy, where the Austrian troops were used, and 
where they perpetrated the most unspeakable atrocities. 
To describe their barbarities would be to impose on the 
sympathetic feelings of this audience, let it suffice to say, 
that helpless women and children were not spared by the 
brutal representatives of these autocrats, and we have here 
one of the reasons why Italy refused to join the Central 
Powers in this war. Italy has not forgotten, and when the 



i6 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

secret agents of these powers attempted to induce the 
Italian army .to join them, they replied that they would not 
fight beside Austria, "even if God Almighty commanded 
them to do so." Prussia, then as now, was the high priest 
of the autocratic faith among the nations, and the house 
of Hohenzollern, then as now, closely allied with the Aus- 
trian house of Hapsburgs, were the ardent defenders of 
hereditary autocratic authority. It is not, therefore, sur- 
prising that similar atrocious methods of Avarfare are being 
employed by the armies of these same houses to-day. 
Truly the "leopard cannot change his spots." 

By provoking quarrels with smaller states, that an ex- 
cuse might be had for their subjugation, by the establish- 
ment of the most elaborate S3'stem of espionage the world 
has ever known, by the careful planting of colonies in 
friendly countries, through which an efficient propaganda 
might be most speedily put into operation at any time it 
was deemed necessary, by secret diplomacy, censcienceless 
briberies and coercions, wherever possible, and, above all, 
by the building of a military system requiring universal 
service, reinforced by a complete and powerful literature, 
this autocratic government has been preparing for the time 
when it could most favorably strike and sweep Democracy 
from the face of the earth. 

Not only would they sweep away the despised Democ- 
racy, but these war lords conceived what was at once one 
of the most gigantic and diabolical projects that ever en- 
tered the minds of men. They dreamed of extending their 
rule across Europe and into the very heart of Asia. They 
proposed to absorb Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, 
Turkey and Armenia, and eventually India. They would 
force the amalgamation of most incompatible races, regard- 
less of their wishes and the remoteness of their possible 
assimilation. Autocracy's military power would bind them 
together or exterminate the stubborn and they would thus 
form an autocratic empire that would dominate the world. 

In 1914 the tide of their plans was "at the flood." They 
knew that the armies of England, France and Russia were 
unprepared, the latter undergoing a process of re-armament. 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 17 

An Irish revolt seemed about to plunge England into civil 
war, France was beset with labor troubles, and Russia's 
railway system was improperly developed. As for the 
United States, "she was too busy, too grasping, too far 
away, too soundly asleep in her prosperity to be counted, 
and, if she did interfere, well, she would have to pay the 
bill for them all." 

On the other hand, Germany was ready, her railways had 
been developed to the utmost of strategic perfection, and 
the Kiel canal had been so enlarged as to permit of em- 
ploying the entire German navy, interchangeably in the 
Baltic and North Seas. This seemed an unusually favor- 
able time to strike, and the murder of the Austrian Prince 
Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian student furnished the 
excuse. At last "the day," to which they had drunk their 
dearest toasts and of which they had sung and dreamed, 
had arrived. You know the rest, the story of Belgium, of 
France, Serbia, Armenia, Russia, Poland, and, to a large 
measure, it appears that her dream is being fulfilled, but, 
the end is not yet. That "old cause," that "good cause," 
that "remorseless sweet idea" is working still, and it shall 
prevail. It has been said that "whom the Gods would 
destroy, they first make mad," and these war lords have 
the very ecstacy of power madness. 

POLITICAL ASPECTS OF GERMAN 
GOVERNJNIEXT 

We have glimpsed at their militarism and imperialism, 
and now let us look for a little at the political aspects of 
the German government. Both England and Germany 
have been for long listed in the gazetteers as "limited mon- 
archies," and there has been no dearth of statements set- 
ting forth the "liberality of the German government." I 
mention England with Germany in this connection, for the 
reason that the majority of our people have usually thought 
of them as being in the same category, but we have already 
shown how the government of England is democratic, and 
a close scrutiny of the facts will show that there is a vast 
difference in the meaning of the word "limited," when 



i8 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

applied to the governments of these two nations. We can- 
not enter into a detailed comparison of these governments, 
but, since we have determined England's status, and we 
fmd Germany opposed to all of the great Democracies of 
the world, it will be of interest to note to just what extent 
the German government is liberal and to what extent it is 
truly the representative of absolute autocracy. 

Throughout the ages the government of Germany has 
been generally represented by unlimited paternal power 
vested in a single monarch, a king in whom all authority 
centered and from whom all authority emanated, supported 
by the religious belief of divine right. As the Empire now 
stands, it is a confederacy, composed of the smaller German 
states, welded together by that master-warrior-politician, 
the Iron Chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck, and the 
product of his fertile brain. A representative of the sturd}^ 
landed aristocracy, imbued with the harsher qualities of 
the Prussian temperament and true to Prussian traditions, 
he held in contempt the liberal ideas of his time, and, recog- 
nizing the policy of *'blood and iron" as the true policy of 
government, he gave to Germany a system that offered 
the most perfect guarantee against the development of 
democratic ideas that could possibly have been conceived, 
i.e., a government by military aristocrats, but providing 
universal suffrage for the people, with that suffrage so 
arranged that it was nullified before it was exercised. 

The German Empire is a confederation consisting of 
25 states and the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine. 
Its legislative power rests with two bodies, the Bundesrat 
and the Reichstag. The most powerful body, and one 
which meets in secret, is the Bundesrat. Its members, 
exercising 61 votes, are virtually diplomats chosen and 
instructed by the rulers of the states they represent. 
Prussia controls 17 votes, and its ruler, the Kaiser, chooses 
the representation of Alsace-Lorraine, whose 3 votes make 
a total of 20 which are instructed by him. Since 14 votes 
can defeat a constitutional amendment, and since the 
Kaiser controls 20, if every individual in Germany except 
this one,' including the other kings and princes, wanted a 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 19 

chang^e in the constitution, they could not get it unless 
William II chose to give it to them. The Reichstag con- 
sists of 397 members, elected by the universal suffrage of 
all German male citizens who have attained the age of 
25 years. The electoral districts were laid out in 187 1 so 
that each district represented approximately 100,000 citi- 
zens, but since no change has been made in these districts 
in over 46 years, the population has so changed that some 
members are elected by only a few thousand voters, while 
others are elected by hundreds of thousands. Besides all 
this, the acts of the Reichstag are subject to the veto of 
the Bundesrat, and this body may dissolve the former at 
any time. With the Reichstag responsible to the Bundes- 
rat, the Bundesrat practically responsible to the Chan- 
cellor, who presides over it, and the Chancellor responsible 
only to the Kaiser, the power of this Prussian king is 
virtually absolute. 

No sadder travesty upon democratic ideals can be con- 
ceived than this government of Germany, with its preten- 
sions of being representative, while, in fact, it is most 
unrepresentative. 

MORAL BREAKDOWN OF GERMAN 
GOVERNMENT 

As an indication of the "moral slough," as he calls it, 
into which the German government has fallen, and the 
complete breakdown of its morality, I quote just one sen- 
tence from a recent address by Mr. J. P. W. Gardiner, 
Military Expert of the "New York Times," which is suffi- 
cient in itself, to say nothing of other phases to which he 
refers, such as lateral marriages, the official forming of 
liaisons between deported Belgian men and German 
women, and other methods of increasing the population, 
ad nauseam. Mr. Gardiner says, under the heading, ''Ger- 
many's Method of Increasing Her Population," ''the first, 
in order of time, was the authorized and systematic rav- 
ishing of the women of Belgium and France and the send- 
ing of the offspring from this official and bestial debauch- 
ery into German}^, to form part of the future "defense of 
the fatherland." 



20 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



Shades of Goethe and Schiller, how can we conceive 
your land so fouling the beauty of motherhood, so degrad- 
ing the morals of its women as this official prostitution ; 
but such is the finishing touch to the picture of this mon- 
ster of Autocracy, such is the government that leads the 
wolf pack of Autocrats in this struggle to-day, and such, 
my friends, is the character of the foe we face. 

Let there be no misunderstanding, this is as much our 
war as it is the war of France or England or "noble- 
souled little Belgium." If there can be such a thing as 
degrees of hate in the war lord's black heart, he reserves 
the superlative of all his hate for America. If, for no other 
reason, the fact that here we have demonstrated that the 
democratic principle is a practical principle of government 
and have raised a peaceful prosperous country on that 
basis, it were sufficient cause for quarrel. If this demoniac, 
insane government can be so dead to the rights of its own 
men and women, its own fathers and mothers and daugh- 
ters, what consideration could that nation expect, that 
would have the temerity to cross its path and hinder the 
fulfillment of its ambition? 

AMERICA "EN MASSE" FOR LIBERTY 

We know now why we are at war. Why we are at war 
with Germany. We are fighting for our own land, for 
our own homes, for our wives and mothers, sisters and 
daughters. We are fighting for our liberty, and our ene- 
mies and all the world shall know, that our love of liberty 
is as powerful to-day as when our fathers faced the auto- 
crat at Lexington and Bunker Hill. 

In another of those bugle calls, Walt Whitman wrote : 

"Long, too long, O, land, 

Travelliug roads all even and peaceful, j^ou learn'd from 
joys and prosperity only, 

But now, ah now, to learn from cries of anguish, ad- 
vancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not ; 

And now to conceive, and show to the world what your 
children en masse really are." 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 21 

It might have been written yesterday. There have been 
those of our foes who have despised us, but they have 
reckoned without the all-important factor. They have not 
taken into account the spirit of Democracy that is "death- 
less" and native to the air we breathe. They have not con- 
sidered that principle, that natural force of liberty, which 
stirs in every true American and every true man. They 
have not realized how completely America can move en 
masse, when that liberty is threatened. We shall, we must, 
show to the world what we are en masse. Not vainglori- 
ously, but nevertheless surely. We shall show to our ene- 
mies one unbroken front, and to our gallant allies, we 
shall give the assurance that as one united mighty nation 
we will take our place in this evolutionary movement, 
side by side with them, and bear our share in the liberation 
of the race. 

Some time ago I found some lines written by that right 
gallant gentleman, Lieut. Col. John McCrae, of Canada, 
who, himself, now sleeps in Flanders fields. I give them 
to you for their inspiration and beauty. They too utter a 
call we shall not fail to answer. 

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place ; and in the sky 
The larks still bravely singing fly, 
Scarce heard amidst the guns below. 
We are the Dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

**Take up our quarrel with the foe. 
To you from falling hands we throw 
The torch ... be yours to hold it high. 
If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep though poppies grow, 
In Flanders fields. 



22 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

That torch shall not go out. Though it takes our all, 
and we are called upon to tread what Conningsby Dawson 
calls the "winepress of new ideals," though it takes sacri- 
fice, of which we have never dreamed, we shall gladly lay 
our all upon the altar of freedom, and hold that torch on 
high until Democracy is triumphant. 

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY 

We have seen somewhat of the relation of Democracy 
to the war, now let us consider the effect of the war on 
Democracy. 

The reactions of material chemistry are not more re- 
markable than those of mental and spiritual chemistry, and 
the conversions occurring in the social, religious and po- 
litical world are just as real and concrete as the conver- 
sion of starch into sugar or any other of the changes of a 
chemical nature. 

War has ever proven a great converter and it is incon- 
ceivable that the Democracy which entered into this fur- 
nace, the greatest of all wars, should come out as it went 
in. When this cataclysm of war befell the nations the 
development of Democracy had been confined chiefly to 
changes in national governments, and in some of those 
governments which claimed to be democratic, the light of 
true democracy burned with but a feeble flame. The 
benefits derived from the changes of government all too 
frequently were confined to the franchise, as in the case of 
Prussia, but it will not be so this time. The changes 
wrought by this war will be very real changes, and not 
merely political camouflage. 

The first effect of the war on Democracy will be the 
wider and fuller understanding of its nature and principles 
by all peoples everywhere. It has been placed in such 
awful contrast with the hideous monstrosity of Autocracy, 
and so vivid has the comparison loomed against the cur- 
tain of fire furnished by a world in conflagration, that all 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 23 



the race will come to understand its meaning and recog- 
nize it as something vital and intimate, to every individual, 
as much so as light and air. 

It will no longer appear in the circumscribed role of a 
solvent of decadent governments and a breeder of revo- 
lution, but it will be released from the limitations imposed 
upon it by the conservatism of tradition and precedent, and 
will strike out upon its true mission of construction. 

There are certain changes impending. They have al- 
ready begun in Europe, and especially in England, and we 
can well profit by them. We are informed that to a very 
large number of men now in the ranks, the fight against 
Germany is a fight against Prussianism, and the spirit of 
Prussianism represents to them only an extreme of that 
to which they object in the industrial and social institu- 
tions of their own country. They regard the present strug- 
gle as closely connected with the campaign against capitalist 
and class domination at home. There can be little doubt 
that this is the mental attitude of some of our soldiers, 
too, and of large numbers of our people at home. While 
not to so noticeable a degree perhaps as in England, yet 
this is the attitude of a sufficiently large number, both in 
the army and out, and we must recognize the condition 
and meet it fairly. The internal changes in Great Britain 
indicate the drift of men's thoughts generally, — the trend 
of the times, — and we must prepare to meet a very dif- 
ferent body of our own men coming home from those who 
marched away. The social status of the soldier returning 
will be something different from the position he accepted 
previously. He will not recognize the flimsy barriers that 
have been raised by class distinction, even in America as 
well as England, and society is due some mighty jolts to 
its smugness and snobbishness unless it learns the lesson 
this war is teaching, the lesson of Democracy. There are 
indications of improvement already, and I am encouraged 
to believe we shall not be found wanting. It is the spirit 
of Democracy we need to give us a clear vision of our 
fellows and teach us the true appraisal of social values. 



24 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

REACTIONS RESPECTING WOMEN 
AND CHILDREN 

One of the greatest things that will be accomplished by 
this war is a better understanding between the sexes. A 
great deal has already been accomplished. For too long 
man has been exerting his autocratic powers, in the sub- 
jugation of women, and it seems to have taken a great 
war like this to bring the truth home to him. Prior to the 
declaration of war, England was wondering how she could 
overcome the militancy of her suffragettes, who were put- 
ting gray hairs in Lloyd George's head, but when war 
came, no more ardent supporters of the government could 
be found than the leaders of these same militant organiza- 
tions. As Mr. Lloyd George rode about in his motor-car, 
. under the skilled steers-womanship of his chauifeuse, Miss 
Caroline Marsh, the celebrated hunger-striker, he doubtless 
found food for thought and for fresh sympathy. The late 
Lord Kitchener is quoted as saying, "The army in the field 
could not last a single day without the efforts of that other 
army, the whole of the civil population at home," and 
included in that army are over half a million of women, 
who have answered the call of the nation by entering in- 
dustry, many of them employed in munition factories. In 
our own country we have been enlisting women in nearly 
every field of endeavor, in ever-increasing numbers, and 
fmding their Avork as satisfactory if not better, in some 
instances, than the men whose places they have filled. 
Strange, is it not, that we have been so slow to recognize 
their worth, strange that we have been so slow to recog- 
nize the inevitable changes the times are bringing, and 
that the political rights of women must be .recognized. 
Whether we like it or not, the same inexorable power that 
means progress in the freedom for nations, as inexorably 
means freedom for the sexes, not of the sexes, and it cannot 
be long stayed. So frightful has been the brutal degrada- 
tion of women in this war, the reaction will be of a very 
positive type. The slaughter of infants and the unthink- 
able mistreatment of children will have an equally positive 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



reaction, and woe betides any system of government or 
employment that continues to abuse them. 

We shall have a new Democracy after this war. Out of 
the' crucible of its trial it shall come forth renewed, a 
shining thing, vital and free from the dross of tradition 
and superstition. Sincerity and true faith shall not be 
ashamed. 

RELIGIOUS AND ECONOMIC 
RENNAISANCE 

We have said that religion was due a renaissance. It 
has already begun. Experience and not authority is now 
fast becoming the measure of men's faith. The old de- 
caying walls of denominationalism are being wiped out 
completely, and the brotherhood of all men and the reality 
of the common fatherhood of God is beginning to be felt 
as something more than a theory or creed. 

Christianity is to have a chance at last. Real Christian- 
ity, the unlabeled and unbranded kind. The teachings of 
the Christ, the philosophy of the Nazarene Master, is going 
to be given a trial. Somehow, when men are brought 
face to face with the stern realities of battle, they become 
shorn of their prejudices and conventions, their shams of 
class and cast distinctions, and there doesn't seem to be 
such a difference after all. Under the tape-line and stetho- 
scope and upon the scales, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and 
Protestant, Christian and Hindu, do not present a world 
of difference. We are assured that, once in the trenches 
under fire, men undergo a sort of new birth, that the change 
is so great that it can easily be told who have and who 
have not been there, and that they come back just human 
beings who have found themselves. 

"After this war, the world will never be the same again," 
said President Wilson, and no truer word was ever spoken. 
The meaningless materialism that has stunted and with- 
ered the minds and souls of men, that reign of materialism 
that contributed no ethical or social ideas of real value has 
come to an end. The new Democracy and the new faith 
will mean the establishment of true ethics and true ideals. 



26 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 

Men will come to see that mere physical possession does 
not carry with it the right to use anything to the hurt of 
their fellows, and will recognize their obligations to the 
generations which are to follow. They will realize that 
it is quite as dishonest to steal from posterity as from 
the man across the street. 

Labor will recognize its obligation to the whole body of 
society and capital will develop a soul. Labor will want 
to give full return in production, and capital will come to 
understand the necessity of a living wage to that produc- 
tion. I say these things will be, — they will happen if labor 
and capital are wise. 

In another quotation (and I wish to acknowledge I have 
used a number already), from Arthur Gleason's remark- 
ably interesting and illuminating book, "Inside the British 
Isles," he says, "Anyone who looks forward to a peace on 
earth following the war of the trenches is going to be 
present at a surprise party." He quotes a prominent 
Scotch employer as saying, "As I look into the future I 
see nothing but bloodshed." Congressman Rainey, of 
Illinois, one of the most conservative and highly respected 
of our national representatives, has said, "I am not so much 
concerned about war problems confronting us as I am 
about the serious problems which will confront us when 
the war ends." * Mr. Kingsley says, "When this war began 
we were utterly unprepared to do our plain duty. We 
must not face the crisis that will lie in after-war conditions 
still totally unprepared. A comprehensive post-bellum pro- 
gram, thought out in advance and agreed to in principle 
by the allies, is almost as important as victory itself." 
Harold MacGrath says, "No more Bolshevikism. No more 
I. W. Wism. No more Socialism that has no country and 
no loyalty." We are facing an after-war problem, a seri- 
ous problem, and we need thinking men to solve it, not 
fanatics nor precedent-bound "stand-patters," but devoted, 
fearless thinkers. Mr. MacGrath has struck the keynote, 
and in these three sentences we have the crux of the whole 
problem. Is Democracy big enough to meet it? Is Amer- 

* See page 29. 



DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 27 



ica and American business far-sighted enough to read the 
future, and reading, take heed? 

Mr. Charles Schwab, in an address delivered last Jan- 
uary, said, *'The time is coming when the men of the 
working class will control the destiny of this world of 
ours. We are at the threshold of a new era. . . . The 
aristocracy of the future is not going to be the aristocracy 
of wealth." What do all these men mean? They mean, 
and every thinking man must realize, that we are facing a 
tremendous economic problem, as the after-war problem, 
insistent, imperious, and that there can be no "side-step- 
ping" it. 

Are we to have annulment and confiscation, as they have 
in Russia, or, by meeting the situation fairly and unselfishly, 
find the answer to such possible calamity in the adoption 
of truly democratic principles? Remember, "Long, too 
long, oh land, you have learned from prosperity only," 
said Whitman. Will we refuse to learn from adversity? 
As Ave read the fate of mighty crumbling Russia, disinte- 
grating through the curse of unrestrained Bolshevikism, do 
we take no warning? Shall we be so stupid that we shall 
miss the lesson that story holds? 

It was this very danger that has led many of the greatest 
thinkers to question the possible success of the Democratic 
idea of government. You will recall that President Lin- 
coln said, in his Gettysburg address, that the Civil war was 
a "test," whether our nation, or any nation, dedicated to 
the principle of equality, could long endure. Is it not 
possible that he too saw, in prophetic vision, that equality, 
misdirected, held the seeds of a destructive socialism? 

Civil strife and bloodshed are obsolete and antiquated 
and altogether unsatisfactory methods of solving economic 
problems. All we need Is a little common, unselfish hon- 
esty. Honesty with ourselves and with our fellow man. 
If we are true to ourselves, to our better selves, "It needs 
must follow, as the night the day, we cannot be false to 
any man ;" and on this principle rests the whole fabric of 
Democratic government. 

The laborer who is tempted to enter Socialism, that he 



28 DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY 



may thereby get Avhat he has not himself produced, must 
be prepared to suffer the disappointment of a shattered 
dream. The thing is fundamentally wrong. 

The employer, who continues to cling to the idea that 
the aim of industry is a product, rather than human wel- 
fare, must be prepared to face Bolshevikism. That is the 
logical result of unjust and unreasoning materialism. 

The statesman, who is honestly desirous of securing 
corrective and constructive legislation, must turn to pure 
Democracy and be contented with nothing less, no make- 
shifts, no half measures, no fakes, or he must be prepared 
to enter that limbo of oblivion that is fixed for the medi- 
ocre, selfish and visionless politician. 

DEMOCRACY ASCENDANT 

Mr. Gleason based his prediction upon the inevitable 
changes that will be wrought in the character of some of 
the people, changes which he sees already begun, and the 
conflict those changes are bound to produce as they clash 
with traits of character in others which he clearly believes 
to be fixed and that the war will not change. 

I cannot believe that there Avill be any appreciable num- 
ber of sane men and women who will not be changed. 
Are we not already changed to some degree, and w^e so 
far from the actual scenes of carnage? Are we not more 
considerate, more kindly, more gentle in our thoughts? I 
cannot believe this baptism of fire and suffering will be 
in vain. 

"God is in Kis world remaking it," and I believe that 
the whole world "under God shall h^ve a new birth of 
freedom," and that Democracy shall not only triumph upon 
the battlefields but also in the hearts of men. 

There can be but one end to this conflict. Democracy is 
"mighty yet," and the spirits of its mighty dead, the spirits 
of Cromwell and Kitchener, of Lafavette and Joan of Arc, 
the spirits of Garibaldi and Mazzini, of Washington and 
Lincoln and Jefferson, still "walk abroad" in the proper 
person of every loyal soldier who faces the common foe, and 
they will range on, until victory is won. 

Democracy, that "orb of many orbs," is in the ascendant 
and no earthly power can stay its ^'eternal march." 



DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM 

IN DEATH GRAPPLE AFTER WAR, 
SAYS CONGRESSMAN RAINEY 

John Temple Graves, Washington correspondent, writing 
for the New York American, as published under date of 
January 13, 1918, presents the mind of Henry T. Rainey, 
Congressman from the State of Illinois, in a most remark- 
able exposition of events which will most likely occur as a 
natural reaction caused by the present debacle of war. 

'"'It is a thought-compelling utterance which will chal- 
lenge the serious consideration of thinking men through- 
out the country. His views are worthy of far more than 
ordinary consideration by reason of his profound studies in 
economics and history. 

"For sixteen years a member of Congress, a stalwart 
Democrat, reckoned among the leaders of his party from 
his first term, the effective chairman of a powerful com- 
mittee, Rainey commands the respect of his contemporaries 
and the confidence of his State to a notable degree. 

"He seldom speaks, but when he does he speaks as the 
result of study and reflection. His conversation was on the 
question of the tremendous problems which will force them- 
selves upon us at the conclusion of the war, which Mr. 
Rainey thinks are of even greater moment than the war 
itself.''' 

"The world has entered a shadow from which it will not 
soon emerge. I am not so much concerned about the war 
problems confronting us as I am about the more serious 
problems which will confront us when the war ends. We 
have pledged all our resources for the success of the under- 
taking in which Ave are now engaged, and the nation is 
already beginning to think on war questions as a unit. 

"Bills involving the expenditure of fabulous sums are 
enacted into law without opposition. Our national expen- 
ditures are without precedent in the history of nations. 
\\q feel the Avar must terminate Avith victory for oursehxs 
and our allies, but not until our great army reaches Europe. 

"We cannot expect to become a decisive factor this year. 
The chances are the Avar Avill continue Avith a tremendous 
diain CA'en on our unparalleled resources for three or four 
years to come. No one has been courageous enough to 
guess at the expense to us of maintaining an army of tAvo 
million men in France, and Ave must haA^e that many men 
there to accomplish anything. A peace Avithout victory 
means the continuing, but on a scale tremendously larger, 
of Avar preparations for another greater war, Avhich Avill 
occur within the next quarter of a century. As a nation 
we are doing Avhat we must do — no other course is open. 



AFTER-THE-WAR PROBLEM 

"It is not too soon to consider tremendous problems 
which Avill be presented after the war ends, and it is part 
of wise statesmanship to consider the possibilities of the 
future. The interesting thing in the world, both from an 
economic and political standpoint, is the Russian situation. 
Nothing so amazing has happened in the world for two 
thousand years. Is the world being made over before our 
eyes? Are the old systems of holding property, of govern- 
'ing even republics, to end with the- war? 

"A ncAV issue demanding consideration is being injected 
into the fabric of every civilized government, and its in- 
fluence is being felt here. Present party differences are 
academic when compared to the great issue now tendered. 
Are we, as a nation, being irresistibly drawn into the mael- 
strom of Socialism? Are our methods of government 
established with sufficient strength to resist it? After all, 
is Socialism and what it appears to stand for, the govern- 
ing method which should be adopted here and throughout 
the world? Socialism, unless it is international, must fail 
to reach the ideals. These are serious questions and de- 
serve serious consideration. 

"How far will we progress in the next two or three years 
along the lines of Russian Socialism? Under laws now 
on the statute books, we have confronting us, an annual 
expenditure for war pensions of five hundred million dol- 
lars — perhaps more than this. The submission of the pro- 
hibition amendment to the States may mean the loss of 
three hundred and fifty million dollars in revenue before 
the war ends. The submission of this amendment was 
proper and inevitable. Ever}/- Government employee is 
demanding his compensation be increased. They are rap- 
idly organizing and becoming affiliated with the American 
Federation of Labor. There can be but one reason for 
this, to increase their salary. 

"The American Federation of Labor is pledged to assist 
them in bettering their conditions, and this, of course, 
means a demand on Congress for larger compensation. 
The demands they are making now mean, if granted, an 
increase in our annual budget of one hundred million dol- 
lars per year. We have taken over the railroads. This 
makes a million additional Government employees. They 
are all organized and all demanding wage increases up to 
40 per cent of their present compensation. Part of their 
demands, we are told, will soon be granted. We now have 
on the Governm_ent payrolls (counting railroad employees 
as Government employees) nearly one-fifth of the adult 
voting population of the United States, all demanding wage 
increases. 

"The taking over is hailed with delight, not only by 
railroad employees, but by stockholders of railroads and 



bondholders, who expect their securities under Government 
control to be more stable than they have been in the past. 
The holders of railroad stocks and bonds are evidently as 
anxious to receive compensation from the Treasury of the 
United States — possibly increased compensation — as are 
the railroad employees. If the railroad employees and 
railroad owners are both anxious for the Government to 
take over the railroads, it is hardly possible that Govern- 
ment control will end with the war. Government owner- 
ship of railroads seems now to be inevitable. Government 
ownership of telegraph and telephone systems must follow 
as a matter of course. 

"There is a strong sentiment in favor of taking over 
the coal mines, and not even the mine owners are seri- 
ously opposing this proposition. If the war lasts two or 
three years, the taking over of these mines seems inevitable 
as a war measure. The taking over of developed water 
power possibilities is already, or soon will be, in process of 
accomplishment. I think I have enumerated enough pos- 
sibilities of the immediate future to indicate the danger 
(if it is a danger) to which I desire to call attention. 

''There is a strong demand to compel the larger incomes 
and well-to-do to pay the increasing expenses of govern- 
ment. We are already taking in excess profits and incomes 
about thirty per cent, after allowing an exemption ranging 
from 7 to 9 per cent. In England they take 80 per cent 
over an exemption to about 8 per cent. Large increases 
in our taxes on incomes and excess profits are a possibility 
of the very near future. It is necessary — absolutely in- 
evitable. All the above is Socialism. Millionaire stock- 
holders and employees who work for a monthly or daily 
wage are all exhibiting Socialistic tendencies without 
realizing it. Modern Socialism, as now being developed in 
Russia, means that every man's income must be increased 
by the State. 

POLITICAL PARTY AIMS 

"If the present alignment of political parties is to con- 
tinue in the future as in the past, and if we have on our 
federal pay rolls nearly one-fourth of the adult voting pop- 
ulation of the United States, all demanding wage increases 
and salary increases, we then have on our pay rolls enough 
federal employees to determine the election in favor of 
that political party which will unequivocally promise to 
agree to their salary demands. If we take over the utilities 
I have mentioned with as much enthusiastic support on 
the part of stockholders as the owners of our railroads now 
exhibit with reference to the taking oveo of railways, we 
will have no considerable influential portion of our popu- 
lation opposing the advance of Socialism. 

"I might call attention also to the fact that with the 
enthusiastic support of stockholders and employees in our 



shipping corporation we have practically now taken over 
our merchant ships and are providing for the construction 
of a tremendously large government-owned merchant 
marine. When we have taken over the utilties I have men- 
tioned in connection with the utilities we already control, 
that party which is pledged to a continuation of Govern- 
ment ownership will receive the support of all employees 
who are demanding still further wage increases and of all 
stockholders who are willing to agree to those demands, 
provided their stock dividends are secured by the Govern- 
ment, and that party which promises these things in order 
to win will win. And when that victory comes Socialisn^ 
has assumed control and will be ready to start upon the 
work of carrying out the theories for which it really stands 
and for which it avowedly stands in Russia to-day, .to-wit : 

"i. — Essential changes in land titles. 

"2. — Modification of our taxing systems, with perhaps a 
tax on land values. 

"3. — Abolition of private property rights. 

"4. — Distribution of the profits of industrials among 
working men. 

TAXES, A BIG QUESTION 

"How to raise five or six billion dollars a year by Federal 
taxes after the war is over is one of the most serious prob- 
lems presented now. Tariff differences between the two 
parties are not now worthy of serious consideration. 
Tariffs of the future ought to be arranged to compel each 
schedule to yield the maximum tariff. In other words, a 
tariff for revenue only will in the future mean the maximum 
tariff rate. This will be neither free trade nor protection, 
but a tariff arranged on this basis cannot be expected to 
yield over $400,000,000 a year. As a matter of fact, it is 
doubtful whether it could be made to yield $400,000,000 a 
yeai;^ but with a six billion budget confronting us either 
amount is, from a revenue standpoint, almost negligible. 
We expect to collect from manufactured tobacco for each 
year under the increased rates the sum of $164,000,000. 
This amount can be increased without injuring the business 
$25,000,000 in all probability. 

"How can we collect the tremendous balance which re- 
mains? I am assuming the revenues from distilled and 
fermented liquors will grow less as the years pass, and I 
am not discussing the moral questions involved. Even if 
this source of revenue remains unimpaired at $350,000,000, 
we are still left with the possibility of being compelled to 
collect annually after the war ends until we have paid off 
enough bonds to eliminate our interest charge, which will 
probably not occur within the next twenty-five years, ap- 
proximately $6,500,000,000, practically all of which must be 
collected by direct taxes of various kinds, especially by 
taxes on incomes and profits " 



ORGANIZATION, 

PURPOSES AND PLANS OF THE / 

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE ' 

('i) The American Constitutional Alliance was organized by Amer- 
ican patriots for the purpose of creating an influence for purity in all 
legislative and political actions ; 

(2) To induce a more general knowledge of the ideals of Amer- 
icanism, eminating from the Federal Constitution, and to advance the 
belief that the fundamental governing power of the nation should be 
grounded within the Constitution in fact, as well as theory, and should 
not be created by the legislatures of the several states, nor by Congress ; 

(3) To induce the sovereign people to take upon themselves a 
mentorship over men desiring public office and places of responsibility in 
American political affairs, so that the Government need not be afflicted 
by politicians seeking positions for self-aggrandizement only ; 

(4) To oppose government by Bureaucracy, the antithesis of self- 
government as established by the Federal Constitution ; 

(5) To secure the recognition of the Federal Constitution as the 
"supreme law of the land," representing the will of the people as the 
sole governing power, so that under it and its amendments, the Nation 
may become more and more actually self-governing; 

(6) To defend the rights of private ownership of property and the 
maintenance of the profit system ; 

(7) To recognize that corporations derive their chartered powers 
from the State-^the people — and that they should therefore be governed 
by the laws of the people and not by the absentee capitalist nor by a 
bureaucratic form of labor unionism ; 

(8) To promulgate the abolishing of the Hamiltonian theory of 
taxation, i.e.^ that government should be supported in the last analysis 
by an indirect tax upon consumption ; and in its place, secure the 
adoption of the Jcffersonian theory of a direct tax upon profits and 
incomes. To prevent these taxes from being shifted to the backs of 
the consumers, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the 
mathematics belonging to the Geometric Tax principle be so applied that 
equity and justice may thereby be dispensed to every American citizen 
in the exact proportion as each is entitled to it through the government 
installed by its citizenry; 

(9) To accord persuasion, through enlightenment and constitutional 
nrovision, a governing power superior to that of legislative concentra- 
tion, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the American 
people add the Geometric Tax amendments to the Constitution, so that 
an inflexible rule governing distribution may be created and thereby sup- 
port the morals of that which is an integral part of pure ethics in gov- 
ernment. 

(10) Therefore, to preserve the good created in the nineteenth 
century for the use of the civilization of the future, the American Con- 
stitutional Alliance calls upon true Americans, with real patriotism in 
their souls, to come forward and form club Alliances, each center electing 
a member to the State Executive Committee and perm.it the Chairman of 
this committee to automatically take his place as a member of the 
National Executive Committee stationed at New York City. 



The American Constitutional Alliance believes that the Geometric Tax 
on incomes and profits, in connection with its plan for Government Own- 
ership, will give to the National Government an income of more than 
$5,000,000,000 annually, without hurt or reaction to the American people. 
Send 20 cents in stamps to the Anti-Socialist Press, 117 West I32d Street, 
/ New York, for a copy of "Americanism, A Contrast to Single Tax and 
^^^ Socialism," anda copy of "The Menace of the I. W. W.," with the remedy 
X> specifically outlined to cure all troubles now existing between capital and 
W)or and for the safety of American wealth to its owners. TliESE TWO • 
BOOKS HOLD THE KEYS TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERIES SUR- 
ROUNDING THE DEMOCRATIC FORM OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 



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